Distributing Rev Stacks (was The age of user-translatable applications...

[Chipp Walters]

my 2 cents...


>
> >A self-extracting archive is not only much larger, it's something some
> >people will be wary of because of the virus issue (since it's an
> >application, it can carry a virus payload), and it's completely
> >platform-specific.
>
> I'm looking at a 492K .zip and a 532K .exe.  That's an 8% growth. On
> the Mac it's 496K .sit vs 520K .sea.  That's 5 % expansion.
>
> Isn't an installer program an application that can carry a virus
> payload?  Do people shy away from clicking on "Install"?  A
> self-expanding archive is no more or less a threat, and it frees the
> user from the requirement of having a specific version of another
> application to manipulate the file they have downloaded.

ZIP files for PC's...unless you have a program you wish to install, then use
an installer like Clickteam Install Maker 1.2. On PC's, self-extracting
files are indeed perceived as a serious threat, unless from a very trusted
source. Remember, PC users have much more frequent and serious attacks from
viruses than Macs. Generally it's easy to view inside a .zip file and see
what's in it before launching an unknown program. Don't .sit files for a PC!
I don't know anyone who uses PC's that uses .sit. Also, from Win95 (Plus) to
WinXP - the OS has supported .zip format. The current version of WinXP has
compressed folders native to the OS.

Frankly, I'm surprised Stuffit has had all these problems! Back a million
years ago when I used Macs, Alladin was considered to have robust software.
If what you say is true, it seems like you might consider zipping files for
Mac as well (though don't know if you can 'zip' resource forks)

You may want to consider RPM files for Linux -- there's a tip on making them
at:
http://www.altuit.com/webs/altuit2/RunRev/Tutorials.htm

-Chipp

>
> And aren't .sit files platform-specific?  Is there a StuffIt for
> Windows?  Is .zip more universal than .sit?
>
>